


Heartless

by CalvinPitt



Category: Deadpool (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Flashbacks, Time Travel, Wade and Cable's history is kind of a mess, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2020-07-27 16:16:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20048926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CalvinPitt/pseuds/CalvinPitt
Summary: Wade reflects as he kills an elderly Cable for his heart. (set during Despicable Deadpool #290)





	Heartless

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. I don't own Deadpool, Cable, or any of these characters whatsoever.
> 
> 2\. I wasn't a big fan of Gerry Duggan's portrayal of Wade and Nate's relationship in his "Deadpool Kills Cable" story, so here's me working through that. There's references to past interactions between the two of them, mostly from Cable/Deadpool.

As Wade listened to the grumpy, emaciated old Cable rant, the thought that kept going through his mind was how easy Nate had made it.

Not because he'd presented Wade with an aged, feeble version of himself, one minutes away from dying anyway. Wade could have killed Cable Classic, with his shoulder pads and incredible jawline. Just because he hadn't yet, didn't mean he couldn't. 

Not because the old man wouldn't shut up about what a fuck-up Wade was (never get tired of hearing that), and how he deserved a better end than this. Although that didn't hurt matters; Wade was more than happy to give the geriatric old bastard the same treatment Gene Hackman got at the end of Unforgiven if it would shut him up. And yes, Wade was aware of the irony of wanting someone else to shut up. So he shot him. The muzzle flash was pretty.

(And really, what had Cable done that was so great? He's always supposed to be making a better future, but almost every future Wade had ever seen completely sucked. Not a single one revered Bea Arthur as the icon she was. Plus, ya know, humanity was usually enslaved or wiped out and the entire planet smelled like Wade's underwear. Why should Cable of all people get to have his dream death, watching the universe end from his Viking space-boat?)

Wade was going to kill Cable and get his heart to Stryfe, one way or the other. It was for Ellie, and even if she hated his guts - good call on her part, get in with the winning side - Wade still wasn't going to let her be killed just because she's unfortunate enough to get half her DNA from him. He'd killed dozens - hundreds - of those stupid beret-wearing ULTIMATUM guys to protect her (assuming that was still in continuity after Secret Wars). What was one more?

(A memory of Wade asking himself that in a bar as his past victims taunt him from every electronic device. Wade hadn't had an answer to the question back then, had he? Had he ever?)

Even so, Wade didn't normally kill his friends. Beat them up, push them away, torture them, sure, but not kill. Sometimes they decided death was better than being around him, but that's totally different! 

And this was _Nate_. Nathan Dayspring Ass-You-Can-Bounce-A-Quarter-Off Summers. They'd tried to kill each other a bunch, and they saved each other a bunch. Wade finds Nate a new arm, Nate fixes Wade's brain (as much as that's possible). Wade makes sure no one steals Nate's stuff from his floating island, Nate makes sure Wade doesn't get blown up with the island. 

(Even if Cable Classic's sulking about deserving better as Wade starts carving into his future corpse's chest makes it tempting to whirl around and jam the blade in between his impressive shoulders. Wade refrains, because he **does** have impulse control, contrary to popular belief. Two Cable hearts might be enough to get Stryfe to drop the rest of the kills, but Wade probably couldn't get Nate's metal arm to take him back to the right time to deliver them.)

So Wade figured he meant something to Nathan. He had to, right? Otherwise, why bother with him? Plenty of other people could have helped Nate protect that little redheaded mutant baby. But no, Cable tells him, right before they get here, that he doesn't like Wade and he never trusted him. And sure, that's good common sense on Cable's part, but it hurt to hear.

(Making a pit stop in yet another shitty future, one that is apparently his fault, didn't help. Because at the same time Cable and everyone else is calling him a monster, he's got vampires telling him they took over the world because he wasn't monster enough for his succubus ex, and she went back to the guy she married Wade to escape in the first place. He's not even cool Gene Colan-illustrated Dracula. It's some tool that looks like a JRPG villain. And those aren't the good RPGs, the ones you shoot at vehicles to make pretty explosions.)

Wade could try to tell himself it wasn't true, that Nate was just saying it because he was pissed about how this was going, but looking back, it was hard to deny. Nate talked big about wanting to make a better future, or showing humanity how to do it, but his actions said different. He liked letting people think they had a choice, then showing them they never did. Let the world government or the X-Men think they could stop him, then reveal he knew they were coming all along and he's just using them to make himself look better. Let Wade think he has the upper hand, then it turns out he's setting Wade up to make a fool of himself in front of the entire world. Because Cable's from the future and he knows what's best, and he's not trusting you to do it when he can trick you into it.

He could have just asked Wade to get him that stuff to mimic his powers when they were gone, but he decided to trick him. Make him think he was free and independent, taking whatever jobs he liked, when he was really just dancing on the end of Cable's leash. If Cable had any faith in Wade, it was the same bullshit faith he had in people in general. That they could be nudged and pushed into doing what he thought was right, whether they wanted to or not.

(Come to think of it, that scene in the bar had been Nate's doing. Hooking his brain to that Infonet without telling him, because he wanted Wade to come crawling to him for help, rather than just showing up and fucking asking to talk. Wade probably wouldn't have shot at him if Nate had done that. Probably. Nate had ruined his rep by pantsing him on worldwide TV. And yes, technically Deadpool had shot him Nate in the head as part of a scheme by various world powers to discredit Nate by destabilizing Rumekistan first. But Nate's a time traveler, so he probably knew Wade was going to do it, and what he was going to do to Wade. So really, Wade was totally justified in pre-emptively shooting Cable for pantsing him later. That tracked, right? Right. Yes. Absolutely.)

Another person using him, and Wade had gone along with it, because the person told him he was worthwhile. Just like Captain America, and hadn't that been a clusterfuck? Even by Wade's standards that one had ended badly. Deadpool just couldn't help getting excited when someone else told him he had good in him. That he wasn't entirely worthless. Even though he knew better.

They're back in the present now, the old Cable's heart in a pillow case, and Cable's telling him he's coming along to confront Stryfe. Because he doesn't trust Wade to handle it. Fine, whatever. At least he's consistent now. Maybe Wade'll get lucky and those two idiots will kill each other. That might be fun to watch. Or maybe he'll kill both of them himself. Or just one of them. Doesn't matter which, really, the original or the clone. 

What's one more?

**Author's Note:**

> I thought having Cable say he didn't like or trust Wade was a mistake. If Deadpool kills the last person who still believes in him after the whole Secret Empire debacle, that's got some emotional heft. But if Cable has the same low opinion of Wade as everyone else, and Wade simply plays into it, where's the oomph in that? Besides, I only find Cable interesting when he's interacting with Deadpool, and if he starts shit-talking him, I start rooting for Wade to shut him up. Not sure Duggan wanted me rooting for Deadpool to kill Cable.


End file.
